Search form

Italy: Beauty Beyond Postcards

Italy is a country rich in culture and history that should be unveiled to the entire international public: too often tourists only end up visiting Rome, Florence and Venice.

It shouldn’t happen to someone who was born and raised abroad, but since the first time I've heard drums rolling during a show of Sbandieratori Italiani on tour in Australia, I've felt something inside of me that, even now, I can’t identify. For me, that music was my past.

the trabucco is an old fishing machine typical of the coast of the Abruzzi region, especially in the province of Chieti, and of Gargano where it is protected as a historical monument by the homonym national park

Now that I live in Faenza - a historic city in Romagna famous for its pottery, which every year gets a large part of its population involved in a Palio among five districts, or rather among the four districts of the medieval city during the era of the Signoria dei Manfredi, and the Borgo [Borough] whose inhabitants are not recognized as citizens - I begin to believe those who say that we have all lived many lives and we are destined to return to the places of our past.

Cetara (Salerno). Photo by Vercingetorige

Every time I hear the sound of drums and trombones of the Faenza districts, whenever I see the historical parades where many people in period costumes appear to have just stepped out of paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, I realize not only how much we are tied to our past, but more than that, I see a side of our country that so many people don’t know both here and, above all, abroad.

As my foot moves to the rhythm of the drummers, often and proudly young, I think of my past in Australia and what we "oriundi"(immigrants of native ancestry) believe the true image of the country of our parents and grandparents is. Now that I live in their country I understand that the concept of Culture we have spread throughout the world is far more limited than the reality available in every region of Italy.

Beautiful view of famous townsquare Piazza del Popolo with historic Palazzetto Veneziano in the historic city center of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Photo by pandionhiatus3

As I look at social media posts and, above all, at foreign websites dedicated to Italian identity, far too often I see the images of three cities, the very same - case in point - we advertize the most and which are the destinations of most international tourists: Rome, Florence and Venice.

I’m not criticizing these cities because all three have had fundamental roles in the history of Italy, Man and world Culture, but why do we actually limit our vision of the beauty of the Bel Paese to them?

Every time I hear the sound of drums and trombones of the Faenza districts, whenever I see the historical parades where many people in period costumes appear to have just stepped out of paintings of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, I realize how much we are tied to our past

In each region there are places that would deserve more attention from the international and national public. Mantua, Urbino, and Gerace in Calabria, to name only three, have the potential to attract hundred of thousands of tourists looking for new and fascinating places to visit, but who may not want to spend hours queueing as they are forced to do in Rome, Florence and Venice.

Even though some areas have become more well-known and have been able to exploit their features as the set of famous movies (Matera being a notable case) unfortunately many others have not been able to create effective promotion programs, especially overseas.

Comacchio (Ferrara, Emilia Romagna, Italy). Photo by dvoevnore

The beautiful movie "Tale of Tales" by director Matteo Garrone has used three incredible castles as movie stages. Many people already knew Castel del Monte in Puglia, but Roccasalegna in Abruzzo and Donnafugata Castle in Sicily were surely wonderful surprises for the audience. Who knows, however, how many realized that they are real places and not created by the magic of special effects?

Our relatives and friends abroad need to be proud of their past, but they can only do so by truly knowing the Bel Paese and not simply the places dominating international images.

Mantova, Italy

Cities such as Ravenna, Chieti, Ferrara, Salerno and Viterbo deserve more than being named in history books' footnotes, they should be recognized for their contribution to the history of Italy and therefore of the world.

We have a duty to make known all the jewels that form the largest cultural heritage in the world, just as it happens with places of History and Culture: this heritage is worth nothing if we keep it hidden and, worse still, if we can’t find money and means of promoting our artists and musicians, beginning with those who have passed.

How many young people today really know 20th century authors like Alberto Moravia, Dino Buzzati, Curzia Malaparte and Guido Piovene? Yet they didn’t die that long ago.

If it had not been for the film "Amadeus" by Czech director Milos Forman, how many people would know who the musician Antonio Salieri was? We have forgotten too many of our artists and authors, it is time we get to know them again and make sure they will not be forgotten anymore.

Palii as those in Faenza are events that could and should be advertised in Italy and abroad in a way that makes them accessible to all. We cannot think of promotional programs for important exhibitions and events in terms of a few months anymore. We should think in terms of three, four and five years in advance and advertise them to the international audience to allow those interested to schedule their holidays in Italy during those occasions.

Events such as the "General States of the Italian Language" should not take place always in the same location, as it happened so far with Florence, but also be hosted in other cities. For instance, it is my opinion that, in the case of last year's General States, Ferrara would have been a more than fair location, as 2016 marked the seventeenth anniversary of Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, a fundamental work for European literature. This would have allowed to introduce international visitors to the city and to the Signoria, ruled by the d'Este family, that inspired it.

Let us not forget that Italy has another enormous patrimony: the over ninety million Italians emigrants and their descendants - one and a half times Italy's current population - living all over the world. They want to know their country of origin, but it is up to us to provide the right instruments to feed their curiosity and desire to visit their ancestral home: to visit their past, we could say, and probably for many of them, as I have pointed out, to learn about their future as well.

But we can’t do it if we persist in recognizing our touristic and cultural destinations mainly in three cities. No matter how important Rome, Florence and Venice are - and they certainly are - Italy has so much more to offer, but only if we show the world the true magnitude and extent of our Culture.